20 Beloved Video Games No One Admits They Hated
17. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Besides Super Mario itself, The Legend of Zelda is surely one of Nintendo's most popular franchises. The adventures of Link and Princess Zelda have captivated gamers for decades now, transitioning from 2D classic dungeon crawlers to fully-realized 3D adventure games. Releasing in 2017, Breath of the Wild was the first mainline Zelda game after a 6-year hiatus, and introduced a fully open-world Hyrule for players to explore. Sporting a new, cell-shaded art style, the game garnered universal praise for its sense of freedom and scope.
Players could literally start the game, go in any direction they wanted and complete objectives in any order they like. Heck, they could even go straight for the final showdown with Ganondorf if they wanted to. It was a level of freedom rarely seen in a video game, and fans of the franchise both new and old were in agreement it was a refreshing change for the series. This was something of a gift and a curse though, as some traditional fans didn't necessarily think the series needed such a drastic change, and it took them a while to accept it.
This degree of freedom means that story is initially pushed to the background, and the small puzzle shrines didn't quite hit the same for players expecting the return of one of Zelda's most beloved concepts- lengthy, puzzle-filled dungeons.
Then there's the whole weapon durability system.
Weapons that players find are constantly worn down before eventually breaking, with all but a handful (including the Master Sword) following this rule. This is meant to encourage the use of new weapons, but for many who were getting to grips with the world and the new mechanics, it was nothing short of a headache that seemingly added little to the game.
For a long time, Breath of the Wild was used as the yardstick with which to measure open world games, and it's hard to be too critical of it. For this reason, you'd be hard pressed now to find many players who admit they ever disliked it... even if they secretly did.